Program Overview

The Graduate Certificate in Translation and Interpreting Studies is a nine-credit certificate that introduces students to relevant research in the interdisciplinary area of Translation and Interpreting Studies and to a number of practical skills required of professional interperters and translators.

Students interested in obtaining the certificate are required to take two courses in Comparative Literature and one from a discipline related to their program of research. All courses counted toward the certificate must be at the 600 level or above.

  1. COMP LIT 681 Introduction to Translation and Interpreting I is required for ALL students.
  2. For the second course, students can choose to take either COMP LIT 682 Introduction to Translation and Interpreting II or COMP LIT 751 Translation Theory.
  3. The third course should be a course from outside the program related to the student's MA/PhD research trajectory whose relevance to the field of Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) can be demonstrated.
  4. All students can also choose to take both courses offered in (2) above in addition to (1) to complete the certificate requirements if their program allows them to do so.

Certificate Objectives

Taken together, the required courses for this certificate will equip students with academic and skill-based knowledge and understanding of:

  • past and current academic research on theory and practice in the field of Translation and Interpreting Studies;
  • translation and interpreting as socio-cultural and ethical interventions as well as linguistic ones;
  • the function of translation and interpreting in communicative situations where an imbalance of power is evident;
  • the significance of translation and interpreting in the fair distribution of social justice within and across communities, societies, and nations;
  • the relevance of translation and interpreting to other academic disciplines and professional work, including literary studies and publishing, legal studies, anthropology and sociology, politics, social work, and educational and health-related settings;
  • the significance of translation and interpreting for members of communities for whom English is not their primary language through engagement in a Service Learning project (CL 682) outside the classroom guided by input from a community partner.